If you live near Montreux you might have felt an earthquake yesterday at 10:48 am when one measuring 4.2 struck. The quake was widely felt in the region and the police received a number of calls from concerned residents. Many would have heard a loud bang. The quake’s epicentre was around 15 km from Montreux in […]
Assura to refund 30 million francs to policyholders
Switzerland’s third largest health insurer had a good year in 2018, according to recently published financial statements. Instead of holding onto all of the CHF 61.9 million profit it made last year, the not-for-profit company plans to return some of the money to policyholders between now and the end of the year. Around half of […]
Lausanne to restrict child care places to working parents
Finding day care for young children can be difficult in Switzerland. In Lausanne it has been difficult for many years. The challenge doesn’t disappear when children go to school either. In Switzerland, schools close at lunchtime and children are the responsibility of parents, a system that works when one parent works and the other stays […]
60,000 imprisoned in Switzerland with no criminal trial
Up until 1981, the Swiss authorities imprisoned thousands of people who were not tried for any crime, under a procedure known as administrative detention. 60,000 were imprisoned, often for years at a time, in this way according to a recent estimate published by RTS. Referred to as a kind of compulsory welfare, people, including men, […]
Only 38% of young Swiss men fertile, according to research
Research by the University of Geneva (UNIGE) found that only 38% of the men it studied in Switzerland had sperm above the standard the World Health Organisation (WHO) considers men to be fertile. The study, which analyzed sperm from 2,523 men between the ages of 18 and 22 who were conceived and born in Switzerland, […]
Voters in Bern narrowly reject proposed welfare cuts
A referendum aimed at cutting welfare expenses in the canton of Bern was narrowly rejected by 52.6% of voters on Sunday. The initiative, supported by a majority of the canton’s parliament aimed to reduce the canton’s welfare spending, which has risen 54% over the last 10 years despite a decline in the number receiving it. […]
Question of the week: why would we expect governments to be effective?
Democratic governments are complex dynamic collections of people with diverse ideas working with and against each other in response to a multitude of internal and external forces in an increasingly complex world. Such groups can really only be expected to slowly move forward via messy compromise. Why then would we expect governments to act decisively […]
Swiss vote results on gun laws and tax and pension reform – 19 May 2019
Today, Swiss voters voted on changes to gun laws and tax and pension reform initiatives. Both the votes on gun laws and tax and pension reform were accepted by 63.7% and 66.4% of voters respectively. Majorities in all cantons voted for the tax and pension reform initiative. Only in Ticino did a majority of voters reject the government’s changes to […]
Switzerland 4th in Eurovision song contest
With his song “She Got Me”, Luca Hänni came fourth in the Eurovision Grand Final in Tel Aviv, Israel on 18 May 2019. The winner was Duncan Laurence from the Netherlands with the song “Arcade”. Winners are selected based on the results of a combination of public tele-votes and votes from a panel of judges […]
Switzerland qualifies for Eurovision final
With his song “She Got Me”, Luca Hänni made it through to the Eurovision Grand Final in Tel Aviv, Israel. Hänni, a 24 year old Swiss singer-songwriter, was born in Bern and taught himself to play guitar and piano at primary school. After school he worked as a bricklayer before giving it up to pursue […]
